Sermons on the Sixth Song

• Be Interdependent
  • Spirit Before Wording
  • Safety Before Prevention
  • Prevention Before Hearing
  • Healing Before Punishment
  • Tribe Before Outsider
  • Outsider Before Monster

Spirit Before Wording

All laws are about the spirit of the law. What are the laws designed to do? What world and what culture are the laws there to preserve? This intent is the law. The words, the letter of the law, that is just the way in which people attempt to make the law real. The letter of the law will always be imperfect. The letter of the law will always require adjustment. The spirit of the law is what the law is.

This is why the spirit of the law must stand above the letter of the law. And this is why the tribe must agree as to the intent and spirit of the law. To serve only the letter of the law is to kill the law, and use its corpse as some grim puppet. Those who would hold the letter of the law above the spirit of the law do not believe in the ideals of the tribe. This is where all law must start. Every member must buy in to the ideals of the tribe, and must commit themselves to the spirit of the law. To do otherwise is fine, but to do so is also to set oneself outside the tribe. This is how culture works.

One who pretends to give buy in to the spirit of the law and ideals of the tribe is a cancer within the tribe that will sunder the tribe and kill the tribe if not addressed. Left to fester a faction within the tribe who does not buy in to the ideals of the tribe will seek to change those ideals. First they will use the letter of the law against the spirit of the law. And they will seek to pull the law away from its original intent. Then they will seek to violate the law from the shadows. Then they will violate the law in the light and dare the tribe to stop them.

Anyone may decide that the ideals of the tribe and spirit of the law are unacceptable, but to do so is to also decide that the tribe itself is unacceptable. Nobody is required to be part of the tribe, but neither can one remain within the tribe if one opposes the ideals of the tribe. The freedom of this choice is critical. This is why children of the tribe are taught how to think for themselves first. This is why children of the tribe are taught to provide for themselves first. This is why children of the tribe are taught to defend themselves first. This is why children of the tribe are taught to defend their ability to walk away. If the child decides they do not agree with the tribe, the tribe does not hold them hostage. If the child decides they do not wish to buy in to the ideals of the tribe, they are both free to walk away and able to walk away.

This is why the children of the tribe are taught to grow their own food, to keep their water clean, to build a home and keep warm. This is especially why the children of the tribe are taught how to band together when they are already in the tribe. Because a child must know how to build their own tribe if they decline to join the tribe of their birth.

This is because the tribe requires no doctrine or dogma. This is because there is no one right way to live. The child can choose to live outside the spirit of the tribe. The tribe does not engage in wars of conquest. The tribe requires no worship. The child is free to find their own way.

All laws are about the spirit of the law. The law is its intent. The law is the world it intends to build through the tribe. Without adherence to the spirit of the law, there is no tribe. The law is the tribe. The intent is the law.

From Safety to Punishment

Words go here.

From Tribe Before Monster

Some people do not play by the rules. Some people do not consider you to be a person. They will lie to you. They will cheat you. They will die you your autonomy. They will claim authority over you. They will claim ownership of you. This is the way of the Hungry Empire: the way of oppression and exploitation, the way of slaves and serfs and servants. Once a tribe has managed to craft a Free Path Tribe, they must defend that freedom.

One key to defending that freedom is not to allow the Hungry Empire to impose itself upon the tribe. They tribe must always deal with the Hungry Empire as an enemy with whom the tribe is at war. All interactions with the Empire are interactions with an enemy nation. The Hungry Empire is not capable of dealing with free tribes in good faith. The Hungry Empire views all free tribes as inferiors, things which can be owned and sold.

Any free tribe which deals honestly and fairly with the Hungry Empire will find their honesty and fairness used against them. The Hungry Empire will betray Free Tribes at every turn. And so, when the Free Tribes deal with the Empire, they must not treat the Empire as they would the Tribe. The Tribe is built by people who agree to be bound by the laws of the Tribe. The Empire considers itself above the laws of the tribe. At best, the laws of the tribe are seen as quaint things. At best the Empire will humor the Tribe so long as the Empire is not inconvenienced by the the process.

The Empire is treated as always being at war with the tribe. The Empire is treated as always being lying. The Empire is treated as always being in violation of the laws of the tribe. This is a necessity, a matter of self defense. To fail to do this is to sacrifice the the tribe to the Empire entirely.

Recommended Reading

• Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
• Nudge, by Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, and Richard Thaler
• The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis, by Eric Berne